Somali Militants Executed for Murder of Journalist

Two members of Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militant group were executed by firing squad Saturday for the murder of a journalist killed by a car bomb last year, witnesses and officials said.

Hassan Nur Ali, 37, and Abdirisak Mohamed Barow, 28, were shot in Mogadishu following their recent sentence by the country’s military court.

Speaking to the media after the execution, Abdulahi Hussein Mohamed, deputy judge of the military court, said the men had finally faced justice.

"Both of those executed were found guilty of murdering journalist Hindiyo Haji Mohamed, whose car was blown [up] with [an] explosive device," Mohamed said. “They have faced the justice.”

The men were caught by security forces few days after the killing of Mohamed in December 2015.

Hindiyo Haji Mohamed, who was a journalist for two state-run news outlets, Radio Mogadishu and Somali National TV, was killed when a bomb planted under the seat of her car exploded. Local journalists said she was returning home from Somali International University, where she was a student. She was the widow of another journalist, who was killed in an attack in Mogadishu in 2012.

Hindiyo was one of few Somali women who have dared to choose a profession long dominated by men and characterized by a hostile and often deadly environment. She was the 38th journalist killed in Somalia since 2010.